The politics of the car park

There's a little piece of east Belfast which will be forever home.

In the days when the inner turmoil of the Ulster Unionists was the hottest story in town, it was the only place to be.

Occasionally when we were really lucky we would have away-days at the Ulster Hall or the Ramada Hotel or even the High Court.

But these were the grand showdowns which used to attract interlopers who would come to watch the big fights and then slope away leaving the hardcore to maintain our lonely vigil, night after night, outside Cunningham House, party headquarters.

That was where the many of the best battles were fought - at meetings of the party officers or executive - and the car park was our ringside seat.

At first they made us park outside until the local residents complained and started shouting nasty things about David Trimble or Jeffrey Donaldson, who they blamed for attracting all too frequent invasions from journalists and camera crews.

'Deserted the car park'

So the lions were invited inside closer to the prey. The ever accommodating press office even brought us tea and coffee.

Everyone had their clearly defined role in this soap opera. The Trimbleites; the Donaldsonites; and the media. We all played our part with relish as we awaited the inevitable outcome.

And then one day the DUP ruined the story and became the largest party; Jeffrey Donaldson left and we deserted the car park we'd loved so well leaving the Ulster Unionists to grieve alone.

The other day a funny thing happened. I found myself standing outside a meeting of the DUP.

Not at party headquarters - not yet anyway - but outside the offices of Castlereagh Borough Council - where a meeting of the DUP Executive was being held to give its verdict on the St Andrews Agreement.

I was the only journalist there and no I wasn't allowed into the car park. But it's a start.

Then a few weeks later more of us were there when the party met at a hotel in Templepatrick. They called it an "away day."

We called it a "clear the air session" following recent... er... tensions over power sharing.

This time we got to the front door. And MP after MLA wished us good day through only slightly gritted teeth.

"And so we await the next chapter in this still fledgling tale - there is nothing inevitable about what may happen - the DUP is not the Ulster Unionist Party."

We were even invited inside to take some shots before the meeting began.

When we were asked to leave, I half-heartedly complained that David Trimble used to give us longer.

"Aye - look what happened to him," said Peter Weir, who as a former Ulster Unionist knows a thing or two about that subject.

Still no tea however though that will surely come.

And no interviews at the end either. Just an e-mailed statement saying they'd had a "constructive meeting today held in a good spirit and which displayed widespread agreement." No questions asked and no reason to doubt it.

Maybe we'd imagined it all. Though Ian Paisley Jnr obligingly told us beforehand that DUP members should stay focused and "not beat their chests and beat up on themselves." We knew what that meant.

And so we await the next chapter in this still fledgling tale. There is nothing inevitable about what may happen. The DUP is not the Ulster Unionist Party.

David Trimble forgot the bit about keeping his enemy close and denied Jeffrey Donaldson the chance to run for the assembly, thus probably ensuring the rift would only get wider - though it may have done anyhow.

The DUP, on the other hand, included Nigel Dodds and Lord Morrow in a delegation to Downing Street, thus saying loudly that everyone is still on board - even though the boat is rocking gently.

But the really interesting part is yet to come. When Sinn Fein actually makes its move on policing, thus forcing the DUP to react, we'll see if it still speaks with one voice and if that voice is Ian Paisley's.

Maybe it's the price they pay for winning the battle of unionism. As they say in sport "winning is the easy bit; it's staying there that's hard".

Though it won't be quite the same. DUP headquarters doesn't have a car park.